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J. Edgar Hoover
John Edgar Hoover (1 January 1895-2 May 1972) was Director of the FBI from 10 March 1924 to 2 May 1972, succeeding William J. Burns and preceding Pat Gray. Hoover was known for his abuse of power, his transformation of the FBI into the United States government's Gestapo-like secret police force, and his use of blackmail and surveillance to fight against "enemies of the state". He is also infamous for his rumored homosexuality with Clyde Tolson. Biography Rise to power John Edgar Hoover was born in Washington DC, United States on 1 January 1895, and he obtained a law degree from the George Washington University Law School in 1916. Hoover worked for the Library of Congress, and he later entered the Bureau of Investigation, the predecessor to the modern FBI. In August 1919, he took over the General Intelligence Division of the BOI, and one of his first assignments was the Palmer Raids under Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer. Hoover targeted foreign radicals, and he managed to secure the deportation of anarchist leader Emma Goldman, making him a celebrity. Hoover became Director of the BOI in 1924, and he became known for his fickleness, firing FBI members who looked unsuited for their job, or firing them because they were "pinheads". Hoover recruiting another young agent, Clyde Tolson, as his right-hand man, and the two of them became homosexual lovers while also being coworkers. The two of them took part in the investigation of the Lindbergh kidnapping and the raids launched against gangsters during the 1930s, and his powers were broadened after taking down America's "public enemies". War against subversives During World War II, Hoover attempted to root out and destroy Nazi spies in America, and he also listened in on suspected Soviet spies in the "Venona project". In 1956, as the US Supreme Court made it tougher to persecute people based on their political beliefs, Hoover decided to start the COINTELPRO program, which allowed for him to blackmail, surveil, and infiltrate organizations and people deemed "subversive"; these elements ranged from Communist Party USA members to Civil Rights organization leaders, Puerto Rican nationalists, and feminists. Hoover denied that the American Mafia existed until 1957, when the discovery of a meeting of crime bosses at Apalachin led to Hoover and the FBI cracking down on the Mafia. In 1964, Hoover attempted to blackmail Martin Luther King Jr. into turning down his Nobel Peace Prize by threatening to reveal his extramarital affairs, but King refused to back down. Hoover would gain the backing of several members of the US Congress and would become a powerful man, running the government's secret police force and spying on all of those whom the government believed were threats. When Richard Nixon was elected president, Hoover asked for his secretary Helen Gandy to destroy all of his files, but he refused to resign as FBI director. Hoover died of a heart attack on 2 May 1972 at the age of 77, and stacks of his files were destroyed shortly after his death. Category:1895 births Category:1972 deaths Category:German-Americans Category:Swiss-Americans Category:English-Americans Category:Americans Category:FBI Category:Protestants Category:Democratic Party members Category:American conservatives Category:Conservatives Category:People from Washington DC